The Kepler space telescope was retired in 2018 after a nine-year mission that ushered in the modern era of exoplanet research with the discovery of 2,600 confirmed exoplanets.
But now there are three more exoplanets to add to the overall mission, even after the telescope has been in the dark for the past five years because astronomers were recently able to use data from recent Kepler observations to discover three more planets.
Two of the three exoplanets — K2-416 b and K2-417 b — have been confirmed, and the third, EPIC 246 2519 88 b, remains an exoplanet candidate. (To upgrade from exoplanet to confirmed exoplanet, the initial observation must be confirmed by observations with two more telescopes.) The planets range in size from 2.6 times the size of Earth to 4 times the size of Earth, making them small compared to the most discovered exoplanets.
The planets themselves may not be the most exciting discoveries, researchers say, but what sets them apart is how they are discovered.
“These are relatively modest planets in the grand scheme of the Kepler observations,” senior researcher Elise Ensha of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said in a statement. But it’s exciting because Kepler has been watching it for the last few days of the operation. It shows just how good Kepler was at hunting planets even towards the end of his life.
